It is all still a recent reality here. We’re still nervous. You find yourself looking at people differently.

-- Barb Helzer, BAR OWNER, ON AURORA SHOOTINGS

Four people, including a gunman who was suspected of taking hostages inside a house, died Saturday after a standoff with the police in Aurora, Colo., the site of a deadly shooting rampage in a movie theater last year, the authorities said.

The episode began about 3 a.m. when shots were heard on East Ithaca Place, about 16 miles southeast of downtown Denver, said Sgt. Cassidee Carlson, a spokeswoman for the Aurora Police Department.

A woman who had escaped from the house told officers that shots had been fired and “that she observed three people inside the home who appeared lifeless as she was leaving,” according to a statement released by the police on Saturday afternoon.

About 50 officers, including members of a SWAT unit, and hostage negotiators were called, Carlson said. When attempts to talk to the man by telephone and over a bullhorn were unsuccessful, the police statement said, officers moved in using an armored vehicle around 8 a.m., which was fired upon.

The police were unable to force the gunman out of the house using gas, Carlson said, and about an hour later, officers shot him to death after he appeared in a second-floor window, she said.

Inside, the police said they also found the bodies of a woman and two other men. Carlson did not identify the victims or the gunman, and said investigators did not know what set off the episode.

In July, 12 people were killed and 58 wounded in a shooting at an Aurora movie theater during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” The gunman, wearing what the police described as ballistic gear, used an AR-15 assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun in the shooting, the police said.

James Eagan Holmes, 24, was arrested outside the theater and has been charged in the killings. Prosecutors are scheduled to present their case against Holmes at a preliminary hearing on Monday that is expected to be attended by many of the survivors and relatives of those who died.

“When the theater shooting first happened, there was incredible grief,” said Bob Broom, a member of the Aurora City Council, who said he lives in the subdivision where the shooting on Saturday took place. “But time heals. And it has healed in this situation.”

Barb Helzer, an owner of the Rock Restaurant and Bar, said she had tensed up when she heard news of the shooting on Saturday.

“It is all still a recent reality here. We’re still nervous,” Helzer said. “You find yourself looking at people differently. We’re careful when we ask people to leave the bar. You don’t take things for granted anymore.”

The theater where the shootings took place, the Century 16, is scheduled to reopen Jan. 17. The theater’s operator, Cinemark, has been criticized for sending invitations for the reopening to relatives of those who were killed.

Relatives of nine of the 12 people killed, including parents, grandparents, cousins and a widow, said they had been asked to attend an “evening of remembrance” followed by a movie on Jan. 17, according to an open letter to Cinemark published by The Denver Post.

In the letter, many of the relatives said the company had never offered its condolences and had refused to meet with them without the company’s lawyers present.